Report on auditing the flood control preparedness in the Upper Tisza region

Report ID: 73

The area of the basin of the Upper Tisza is one of Europe’s wettest regions, at high risk from floods. The fundamental cause of the frequent and sizeable floods characteristic of the region, is the hydrometeorological and sinoptic situation, as well as the special location and structure of the beds of mountain rivers, soils and mountain rocks. Floods cause major damage to Ukraine and Hungary alike, and this determines to a large extent the parties’ cooperation in preventing the damaging effects of water and averting the consequences of floods.

The execution of a parallel audit covering the flood control preparedness in the Upper Tisza Region was preceded by an agreement signed in Budapest, on 4 March 2004, by the Presidents of the State Audit Office of Hungary and the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine aimed to monitor the implementation of the contents of the Transboundary Water Agreement signed between their respective countries in 1999, which serves as international legal basis for the cooperation between Hungary and Ukraine in respect of transboundary waters.

The parallel audit was integrated, in case of the Hungarian State Audit Office, in the performance audit task entitled “Audit of Preparations for the Prevention of Natural Disasters”, while in the case of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine it was a part of the task entitled “Analysis and Audit of the Execution of the State Programme Covering the Complex Flood Control Preparedness of the Catchment Area of the Tisza River and the Sub-Carpathian Region for the Period 2002 to 2006 and the Forecast until 2015”. The audit offices submitted their respective reports to the legislative bodies of their countries.

The joint report presents the summary of the findings made on the Hungarian and Ukrainian sides, as well as the details of the joint conclusions concerning the fields of cooperation, which cover the transboundary waters.

SOURCE: https://rp.gov.ua/IntCooperation/IntAudits/?id=47&lang=eng

Building of the Litschberg Basic tunnel and the Szekszrd Danube bridge

Report ID: 76

In the summer of 2002, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) celebrated the 125th anniversary of its founding. Friendships among the invited foreign guests were strengthened and there was a resolve to
continue the successful cooperation. An agreement was made with Hungary to organise a parallel audit
on investments in the area of transport infrastructure and to focus on the following topics:

• The Szekszárd bridge construction investment within the context of motorway investments in Hungary
• Tunnel construction investments within the context of the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA).

Apart from reinforcing and intensifying relations, the joint activities are intended to contribute to enhancing the specialist knowledge of both audit authorities.

In order for this approach to take place, delegations visited Hungary in the summer of 2003 and visited Switzerland in the spring of 2005. The revised work is now published in a joint report which will be released by both audit authorities within the scope of EUROSAI and EU activities.

National parks in Polish-Slovak border area Audit Report

Report ID: 145

In 2005, the Supreme Chamber of Control of the Republic of Poland (NIK) and the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic (NKU),  performed a parallel audit of the functioning of national parks with regard to preservation, sustainable use and restoration of natural resources.

The audit was carried in accordance with the agreement on cooperation concluded between the NIK and the NKU on 9 February 1998 on the basis of the INTOSAI auditing standards. The total area of the audited national parks located in the borderland between Poland and Slovakia was 46,340 hectares on the Polish side, and 107,355 hectares on the Slovak side.

The objective of the audit was to assess:

• the effectiveness of the tasks performed with a view to conserve natural resources in selected national parks as well as to examine whether the resources and funds of the parks had been used in an economical and efficient manner,

• the impact of the binding legal regulations on ensuring appropriate protection of ecosystems of national parks,

• the effectiveness of the activities taken by wildlife conservation bodies.

Source: https://www.nku.gov.sk/documents/10272/1542112/2007+-+National+parks.pdf

Audit on the conservation of biodiversity on the area of the planned regional parks Sne?nik and Koevsko Kolpa and in Risnjak National Park

Report ID: 191

In the recent decades we witnessed the reduction of biodiversity and landscape diversity due to negative impacts on the animal and plant species, their habitats and habitat types. Therefore the reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national levels is an important step in the conservation and protection of biodiversity.

The countries that are aware of the importance of the conservation of biological diversity have agreed to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity. By signing the Convention they have decided to build up national strategies, plans and programmes in order to provide for the conservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity. For the conservation of biodiversity, i.e. »in situ «conservation, the Convention on Biological Diversity stresses the development of protected areas such as national, regional and landscape parks where the conservation of ecosystems, species and habitats is of high importance.

Croatia and Slovenia are countries with relatively high levels of the biodiversity; their biodiversity index (NBI) ranks them in the first quarter of the European countries. On the territories of Croatia and Slovenia there are wild animals that belong to the endangered European species, among them there are three large carnivores: brown bear, wolf and lynx. Despite the positive biodiversity situation both countries ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1996 and agreed to implement its objectives in order to provide for the efficient protection of biodiversity.

The Supreme Audit Institutions of the two neighbouring countries decided to contribute to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity by auditing the establishment or management of the protected areas and by auditing the efficiency of the implementation of the measures for the conservation of biodiversity.

Because the audit findings and the conclusions were comparable, the SAIs published a joint audit report on the protected areas; i.e. Risnjak National Park in Croatia and planned regional parks Snežnik and Kočevsko Kolpa in Slovenia. The areas included in the audit are mainly covered by forests. The forests of Snežnik and Javornik linked with forests of Kočevje and Gorski Kotar com Europe. This is also the habitat of the three large carnivores.

The SAIs assessed the appropriateness of the institutional framework for the conservation and protection of biodiversity and the efficiency of the establishment or management of the protected areas. The special focus was placed on the implementation of the measures for the protection of the large carnivores that exist in those forests. When the audits were completed they issued national audit reports that are available on the web sites of the SAIs.

The audit of the Slovenian SAI included the period from 1996 to the end of 2005 and was implemented at the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food and the Forestry Institute of Slovenia. The audit of the Croatian SAI included the period from 2003 to the end of 2005 and was implemented at the Ministry of Culture, the National Nature Protection Service, the Public Institution Risnjak National Park and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water management.

This report presents the common audit findings, recommendations and summaries of the most important findings. The Appendix includes the explanations of the used terminology.

Parallel Audit on the processes for identifying reporting and following up on Irregularities by the Working Group on Structural Funds II

Report ID: 33

The 2004 Contact Committee gave the Working Group on Structural Funds a mandate to continue its reviews of Structural Funds issues and specifically; to carry out a review of the processes in place for identifying, reporting and following up on irregularities. Irregularities are defined by EU Council Regulation 2988/1995 as “any infringement of a provision of Community law resulting from an act or omission, intentional or not, by an economic operator, which has, or would have, the effect of prejudicing the general budget of the Communities".

In order to undertake this review the Working Group developed an Audit Plan to be used by the participating Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in carrying out their respective national audits. The audit plan covered six specific Key Areas:

1. Guidance
2. Identification and recording of potential irregularities
3. Examination and decision making on recorded irregularities
4. Reporting to the Commission
5. Follow up/investigation of the reported irregularities
6. Financial Corrections

The Working Group, as guided by the Core Group of Germany (Chair), the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom, summarised the key findings and recommendations from those country reports, and produced the consolidated report which includes good practices. The findings are presented in the report for every Key Area.

The objective of the work  was to capture the SAIs judgements in identifying examples of both good practice and weaknesses in the systems and procedures in place within Member States. This was the first parallel audit involving the full participation of some of the new EU Member States.

Source:https://www.eca.europa.eu/sites/cc/Lists/CCDocuments/1959834/1959834_EN.PDF